Comments

Comment by Reignac

I cannot put into words how absolutely ecstatic I am that the Balance weapon is the Scythe of Elune. This has long been a favorite item of mine, and it's very closely tied to the origins of the worgen. Players may remember a questline to follow its trail in vanilla, but it's so much more than just that. This story is from the comic book Curse of the Worgen, with a tiny bit from Dark Riders:

The Scythe of Elune was crafted during the War of the Satyr, when the satyrs fought the night elves in Ashenvale. The night elf druids had a wolf form, the Pack Form, but Malfurion banned it because it was completely impossible to control, druids who turned into a wolf were overcome by the blind rage of Goldrinn and attacked everyone friend and foe alike. Not even Malfurion could control it, and he had attacked Cenarius when he became a wolf. But even though Malfurion banned it, a group of druids continued to use the Pack Form. One of them was named Ralaar Fangfire.

When Ralaar's best friend Arvell died in the war because he had promised Malfurion he would not use the Pack Form, Ralaar began to hate Malfurion. He and Arvell's distraught girlfriend, Belysra, decided on a plan to control the uncontrollable Pack Form. They took a fang from Goldrinn and attached it to a staff blessed by Elune, creating the Scythe of Elune and hoping Elune's light could control Goldrinn's fury inherent in the wolf form. But it couldn't. Goldrinn rejected Elune, and Ralaar and the Druids of the Pack turned into the very first worgen. Ralaar renamed himself Alpha Prime.

The worgen were powerful enemies against the satyrs, but they didn't stop at the satyrs. They attacked the night elves in their fury, and their victims turned into worgen as well. Belysra, realizing what she had done by helping Ralaar, delivered the Scythe of Elune to Malfurion. Using the Scythe's power, Malfurion sealed Ralaar and the worgen inside the Emerald Dream where they would sleep forever...

...Or, so they hoped. Thousands of years later, when the Scourge assaulted the Eastern Kingdoms, King Genn Greymane of Gilneas ordered a mage named Arugal to help them fight the undead. Arugal pulled Ralaar and his worgen out of the Emerald Dream, and they did fight the Scourge...but they also spread the worgen curse into Gilneas. Ralaar hired Arugal to create a Wolf Cult, for he wanted the Scythe of Elune to free the rest of the trapped worgen and get revenge on Malfurion.

In Kalimdor, meanwhile, a night elf named Velinde Starsong found the lost Scythe of Elune in Ashenvale. With it she summoned more worgen and fought the demons in Felwood, but the worgen kept coming outside of her control. When she heard Arugal had worgen of his own (not realizing Arugal worked for Ralaar), Velinde journeyed to Silverpine to ask for his help. But she was attacked by Ralaar's Wolf Cult in Duskwood and died there. The Scythe's power proceeded to summon more worgen from the Emerald Dream into Duskwood, plaguing the forest with them to this day.

Later, a group led by a priest named Revil Kost found the Scythe and used it to lure out the Dark Riders, who were hunting for magical artifacts. They later delivered the Scythe to a night elf named Valorn, who brought it up to Gilneas.

But when it got to Gilneas, the Forsaken stole it. In the worgen starting zone, we helped the night elves get it back. Ralaar would attack the night elves in Gilneas after we left them, but Belysra revealed she had the Scythe and tried to use it to banish Ralaar and his Wolf Cult back inside the Emerald Dream...but Alpha Prime was instead killed, ripped apart, by a spirit wolf who was actually the ghost of his old friend Arvell.

And that is the last time we saw the Scythe of Elune before Legion.

Comment by LilRichard

Always enjoyed the idea that the weapon of Elune is a scythe (Read Reignac's post :D).

It takes away from the simple, fuddy-duddy, tree-loving-hippie image of the druids by saying "Here is Death." It's a reminder that death is just as much a part of a natural, bound, sustainable ecosystem as is birth.

It's also a symbol of summer, of bounty, of the harvest - the promise of rebirth and good things to come.

The creatures named after Elune's moon, who seek the balance between life and death, are the moonkin - the form of balance druids.

Elune is a boomy dr00d.

So there :P.

Comment by phylum

Would it not be fun if this had an 'On Use: Curse target npc into a worgen.'

You can play with Artifact Traits on the calculator page. There, you will also find 3D model views of the Appearance unlocks.

Comment by rmalheiros

Item was updated.

Comment by step2me

My question/speculation is this: Why is boomy the only spec that is not a healer that gets a sha touched socket for their weapon? All the other healer spec weapons get one, and then there is this one.

Of course we know wrathion is coming back in some sort of "i told you so but you F***** up my plan, but hey now there is this so lets go with it." sort of thing, so we can speculate that some sort of new sha touched gem is coming, either that, or if we were lucky somehow that the old sha touched gems still have some sort of relevance.

It's just a very odd detail to leave in, that is assuming all these weapons data mined are accurate.

Opinions?

Comment by Kradgger

"It's pronounced "Scythe", not "Skyth""

"Well, "Skyth" is the EVIL way of saying it..."

Comment by Skullhawk13

I'm personally more resto/feral, but I am very happy to see this go to balance. They really deserve it.

Comment by AmmakoWolfe

As a Worgen Druid, this makes me happy.

Comment by Whackadoo

I am absolutely thrilled to be receiving this very weapon for my Balance Druid. For someone like me who is very fond of the lore behind World of Warcraft was very pleased with the announcement of this specific weapon!

Comment by Livewire2000

I'd like to know if this is still a thing for the Scythe. There is mention of a passive called Moonfang that applies a very powerful DoT by chance when casting offensive spells while the Scythe of Elune is equipped. I haven't seen any mention of this in some of the videos I've watched but hope it is still a part of the Scythe. I love the lore behind it, my main is a Balance Druid and I honestly can't wait till we can obtain this artifact. Any information about it at all would be very helpful.

Comment by Gambolputty

Put this in a macro to open up your artifact weapon talent tree directly:/run SocketInventoryItem(16);

Comment by faia

Like one of the "hidden" uses for artifact weapons

In legion, you will sometimes come over "Feral Worgen" in Val Sharah that you can use "Light of Elune" when you get close to remove their curse. Doing so will give you 25 artifact power.

Here some dialogue you get when you free the first one

"The rage... it no longer claims me! Praise Elune that you found me master of the fang, or as we in the pack say, Nahlen'do"

"My Mind is still hazy but I remember combat... ah yes...we were battling the satyr when the rage overtook me"

"I cannot remember what happened after except that I and a few others of my kind awoke and together we traveled as a pack through the Emerald dream. After some time we arrived in this land and each went our seperate ways"

Comment by FrostWD

If you reset your artifact weapon (the talents/traits) you DONT lose any artifact power except for the artifact power you pay for the reset!

Comment by Kaleesh

Honestly in shock at how bad this questline was. Like, I heard it wasn't great, but I assumed that meant that it was boring, not that it neutered one of Vanilla's coolest mysteries.

Like... The Dark Riders are just cursed merchants? MERCHANTS? Seriously Blizzard? What are your writers even doing in there? Certainly not even obeying the basic rules of punctuation as evidenced by the quest text in Disturbing the Past. Shoddy. Really shoddy.